ruppert



Sept. 27, 1955 M. K. RUPPERT RAIL ANCHORS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 6, 1953 Sept. 27, 1955 M. K. RUPPERT 2,719,008

RAIL ANCHORS Filed Nov. 6, 1953 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 27, 1955 RUPPERT 2,719,008

RAIL ANCHORS Filed Nov. 6, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. 91 flpappe 7 I 4 BY United States PatentO "ice RAIL ANCHORS Max K. Ruppert, Chicago, 111., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Poor & Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application November 6, 1953, Serial No. 390,616

1 Claim. (Cl. 238-327) This application is a continuation in part of my prior applications, Serial No. 145,737, filed February 23, 1950 (abandoned November 16, 1953), and Serial No. 284,047, filed April 24, 1952.

The invention disclosed herein relates to improvements in rail anchors of the one piece drive-on type including a relatively heavy steel bar of T-shaped configuration in cross-section defining a body portion for underlying the base portion of a railroad rail in a position to abut against a vertical face of an adjacent crosstie and bent at one end to provide a hook adapted to be driven onto a lateral flange of the base at one side of the rail and formed at the other end with a locking shoulder for engaging the edge of a similar flange at the other side of the rail.

The hook portion of the above type of rail anchor is precision formed to fit the progressively increasing thickness of a conventional rail base flange at a prescribed location and to exert a strong resilient grip thereon, but it has a moderate limit of elasticity. Therefore, it is important that the anchor be so applied as to distribute the flexing stresses around the entire bend of the hook and thereby avoid bending the metal beyond its elastic limit at any localized area.

In order to correctly apply such anchor, two factors must be taken into consideration. The first of these factors relates to the proper application of the driving force of a track maul to the outer edge of the hook por tion of the anchor so that when the blow is applied, the force of the blow will be directed so as to concentrate the applying forces in a direction which compels such force to be exerted in a plane parallel to the plane of the under-rail portion and in a direction of the horizontal axis of the hook to avoid excessive distortion of the hook relative to said underrail portion as, for example, when the impact force is applied too high on the upper surface of the hook there is a pronounced tendency to spread or open the hook beyond the elastic limit of the metal therein, thereby giving the hook a permanent set which reduces its resilient grip on the rail flange. The second factor is also related to the driving force in the respect that such force when applied to the outer surface of the hook portion will not overdrive the under-rail body portion of the anchor to such an extent that the elastic limit of the hook is exceeded to the point where the resilient grip of the hook is ineffective to return the locking shoulder into gripping engagement with the edge of the base flange of the rail opposite the hook.

The present invention is intended to overcome the objections incident to the above factors and to this end provides means which cooperate to insure correct application of the anchor to the base of a rail. That is to say, the anchor of the present invention provides a flat striking face or target on the outer portion of the hook for receiving the impact applying force and a positive stop shoulder positioned, preferably within the hook, for limiting the applying movement of the anchor. Consequently the proper application of the anchor is assured Patented Sept. 27, 1955 regardless of the inefficiency of the workmen applying the anchor, and by virtue of its proper application it will exert its maximum resilient grip on the rail and thereby maintain its operative position against a side face of an adjacent crosstie to prevent creeping of the rail under traflic loads moving on the rail.

In the specific form of anchor device herein shown the central web of the T-shaped cross-section of the metal bar constitutes a central rigidifying rib which is relatively wide and thin and extends lengthwise of the anchor body and around the hook portion thereof. The necessary rigidity in the hook for resisting the outward spreading thereof is provided principally by the said reinforcing rib and to a lesser extent by the lateral arms of the T- shaped stock. The flat striking face is formed on the said rib on the outer portion of the bend and the stop means, preferably spaced apart shoulders, are formed on the inner curved surface of the hook at opposite sides of the central rigidifying rib and, therefore, permit the inside of the hook to be formed with a continuous arc, whereby the flexing stresses imposed on the hook may be uniformly transmitted to the rigidifying rib throughout the entire bend of the hook.

Accordingly, one of the objects of the invention is to provide a striking face or target on the outer portion of the hook to provide a visual aid for encouraging the workmen to strike the anchor at the proper point to insure proper concentration of the applying force and to also provide a stop means for preventing overdriving of the hook portion onto a rail base flange at one side of the rail and consequently avoid flexing the hook beyond the elastic limit of the metal, the said stop means being positioned to arrest the applying movement of the hook as soon as the locking shoulder is in a position to snap over and engage the edge of the base flange at the other side of the rail. 1

The invention is illustrated in certain preferred embodiments, in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. l is a plan view of a base portion of a railroad rail supported on a rail supporting structure and provided with a rail anchor device, constructed in accordance with this invention, applied to said base;

Fig. 2 is a side view of the rail anchor shown in Fig. l, the rail base flange being shown in section;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the hook end of the anchor device shown in Fig. 2 for the purpose of showing in clear detail the configuration of the hook-shaped bend and the constructions of the striking face and the stop shoulders;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional plan taken on line 44 of Figs. 2 and 8, respectively, to illustrate the spaced relation of the stop shoulders of both anchor structures herein shown;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 2, but showing the anchor device in the position which it would normally assume when applied by hand to a rail base. flange and before driving force is applied to the anchor;

Fig. 6 is a view of the parts at the left of Fig. 5 and showing the normal application of force to the anchor for application to the rail;

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 but showing the application of force to the anchor at the desired point on the anchor but with a blow applied at an angle from the horizontal; and

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 3 but illustrating a slightly modified structure.

Referring first to Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings: 10 designates the main body portion of a rail anchor constructed in accordance with this invention applied to the base portion 11 of a railroad rail. The said railroad rail is supported by means of a crosstie 12 and a tie plate 13 which intervenes between the top surface of the crosstie and the bottom surface of the rail base. The tie plate 13, as herein illustrated, is provided with spaced shoulders 1414 for defining a seat for the rail base and the plate is secured to the crosstie 12 by means of suitable fastening devices 15. The fastening devices may be of any approved form and are illustrated herein as ordinary track spikes which are driven into the underlying crosstie through square openings 16 formed in the tie plate.

The rail anchor device is formed from a rolled metal bar of T-shaped cross-section, the bar being arranged so that the lateral arms 17-17 provide a platform for engaging the bottom surface of the rail base and the centrally disposed rib 18 of the bar provides a flat vertical face of large area for abutting against a vertical face of the adjacent crosstie 12. One end of the main body is bent into hook form to provide the anchor with upper and lower jaws 19-20 which grip the top and bottom surfaces, respectively, of one flange of the rail base. The bend 21 for connecting the upper jaw 19 with the lower jaw is formed with a radius of approximately so that the diameter of the inner bend of the hook will be sulficient to provide a substantial clearance 22 above the upper corner portion 23 of the rail base and also provide a substantial clearance 24 below the lower corner portion of the rail base. A pair of aligned but spaced apart shoulders 2525 are formed on the inner surface 26 of the bend so as to provide vertical shoulder surfaces 2727 adapted to abut against a vertical edge surface of the rail base to limit the applying movement of the anchor. The lower edges of the shoulders 25--25, as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, extend below the plane of the bottom surface of the rail base and merge into the inner curved surface of the hook by means of a fillet 28. The upper portion of the said shoulders 2525 likewise merge into the inner curved surface of the hook by means of fillets 29. The clearance space 24, as shown in Fig. 3, provides the necessary clearance to facilitate the formation of the rigidifying fillet 28 without danger of obstructing flat contact of the shoulder surfaces 27 with the adjacent vertical edge face of the rail base flange.

The shoulders 2525 are preferably formed by applying metal displacing force to the outer face of the arms 1717 of the T-bar near the lower portion of the bend 21 whereby the metal is displaced substantially as indicated by the indentation 30. A portion of the displaced metal is, of course, pressed laterally into the walls of the depression 30, but the major portion is pressed through the lateral arms 17-17 of the bar and is utilized to form the shoulders 2525. The inner ends of said shoulders merge into the inner curved surface 26 of the hook at 10- cations closely adjacent to the planes of the opposite sides of the vertical flange 18 as shown in Figs. 1 and 4. The fact that the stop shoulders do not extend across the bar, but on the contrary taper off and merge into the bend-of the bar at locations adjacent the opposite faces of the central reinforcing rib, makes it practical to form the bend, in the region of the vertical reinforcing rib with a continuous arc, whereby the flexing of the hook is uniformly distributed to the reinforcing rib throughout the cntire curvature of said continuous arc.

The dotted line position of the upper jaw 19, as shown in Fig. 3, illustrates the initial position of the upper jaw before the hook portion is spread during the application of the anchor to a rail. It will be seen, therefore, that the normal spreading of the upper and lower jaws, during the application of an anchor to a rail, is rather small. By reason of the clearance 22 above the upper corner portion of the rail base, the upper jaw 19 bears only at its terminal end against the inclined upper surface of the rail base, the bearing contact being at a substantial distance from the vertical edge of the rail. This construction utilizes the upper jaw as alever to turn the anchor about the lower jaw 20 as a fulcrum to hold the main body portion tightly against the bottom surface of the rail base. The tail end of the body is offset to provide a shoulder 31 which snaps up into locking engagement with the edge of the rail base flange 32 so as to hold the jaw end of the anchor in its tight gripping engagement with the rail. The distance between the vertical faces 2727 of the stop shoulders 25-25 and the vertical surface of the locking shoulder 31 is suflicient to accommodate the normal variations in the widths of rail bases for which the anchor is designed to fit. There will be normally a slight clearance between the vertical faces 2727 of the stop shoulders 25-25 and the adjacent vertical edge surface of the rail base. However, when the anchor is so driven onto the rail that the face 27 of the shoulders 25-25 are brought into abutting engagement with the edge of the rail base, the impact force together with the resilient reaction of the hook portion of the anchor will position the anchor so that the vertical face of the locking shoulder 31 will engage the edge 32 of the rail base.

The book portion of the anchor device is formed by bending as distinguished from upsetting operations and the single continuous bend is a characterizing feature of the general type of anchor dealt with in this application. However, the specific manner and the means for bending the bar into hook form is not disclosed nor claimed specifically in this application, since the said method and apparatus constitute the subject matter of my co-pending application Serial 153,164, filed March 31, 1950, of which the present application is a continuation in part.

As shown in Fig. 2, the upper jaw 19 is normally in such spaced relationship to the lower jaw 20 as to permit only the edge portion of the flange 33 of the rail base to enter the space between the jaws except as force is applied to the anchor. For the application of the anchor to the rail, the anchor is first placed loosely on the rail in the position as shown in Fig. 5, and force is then applied to the anchor, preferably by blows on the end of the hook as shown in Fig. 6 of the drawings, for causing the upper jaw 19 to travel upwardly and inwardly on the sloping top face of the flange 33 of the rail against the force of the resiliency of the anchor. At the end of the movement of the anchor toward the right into position on the rail, the shoulder 31 on the end of the body 10 at the right is caused to have snap engagement with the side face 32 of the adjacent flange of the rail so as to normally prevent return movement of the anchor toward the left.

The fit of the anchor on the base portion of the rail and the quality of the steel selected for production of the anchor are such that the anchor when properly applied will move under proper conditions in the matter of the application of the anchor to the rail, to move from the position as shown in Fig. 5 to the position as shown in Fig. 6 without any distortion of the hook portion of the anchor beyond the limits intended, thus insuring that the anchor in its final applied position as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 shall have an exceedingly strong grip on the rail. This result, however, is dependent as previously indicated upon the condition that the power be applied at the proper point on the anchor and in approximately a directly horizontal direction, since otherwise the jaw is likely to be excessively distorted.

For insuring so far as possible that the blows of a sledge 34, used by a workman for the application of the anchor to the rail, shall be applied to the best possible advantage, the invention includes the provision of a clearly defined striking face 35 so as to indicate to the workman the point at which the blows of the track maul 34 are to be delivered. This striking face is preferably in the form of a flat surface formed on the outer arcuate surface of the vertical rib 18 and is therefore substantially centered vertically with respect to the lateral flanges 17-17 of the anchor body and the hook of the anchor, and at substantially right angles to the horizontal body portion of the anchor. The flat surface 35 not only provides a target area to indicate to a workman the location where the impact force should be applied to drive the anchor to its applied position on a rail, but also provides a flat surface in the form of a chord of substantial area and of a width which is substantially equal to the thickness of the rib as distinguished from a curvilineal striking face such as is normally formed during the bending of the metal bar before the outer edge of the metal rib is flattened to provide said striking face 35. It will be also observed that when a blow is delivered by a ball peen of a conventional track maul on such a striking face the greater portion of the force of the blow is applied in ahorizontal direction. This is true also when the force is directed obliquely downwardly, as shown in Fig. 7, since the downwardly directed force, in such case, has no tendency to flex the upper jaw 19 downwardly toward the top surface of the rail base flange 33.

When the anchor device reaches its applied position, the locking shoulder 31 snaps upwardly into engagement with the vertical edge 32 of the rail base and the stop shoulders 25 will assume a position opposite the edge of the base flange engaged by the hook portion of the anchor. If the overall width of the rail base is less than the distance between the stop shoulders 25 and the vertical face of the locking shoulder 31, the reflex of the hook portion of the anchor together with the rebound of the stop shoulders 25 from engagement with the rail base will draw the locking shoulder 31 into tight engagement with the vertical surface 32 of the rail base as shown in Fig. 2.

In view of the fact that a heavy downward blow on an anchor of the type herein shown may very substantially damage the anchor with respect to its use with the rail for which it was designed, and that this result may be brought about without any visual indication that any damage has been effected, it will be appreciated that the provision of a fiat perpendicular striking face is of great importance from the standpoint of making effective use of the impact force applied thereto during its application to a rail and of the effectiveness of the grip of the anchor, in the performance of its highly important function of holding a rail against movement longitudinally in a track. These beneficial results are obtained as a direct result of the improved conformation of the anchor.

Referring now to the modified construction shown in Fig. 8 of the drawings: This construction is identical to the construction shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 except that the inner surface 26 of Figs. 2 and 3 curves downwardly beneath the lower surface of the rail base to provide the clearance 24, whereas the lower portion 26a of the inner surface of the bend 21a of the embodiment shown in Fig. 8 merges into the plane of the flat upper surface of the lower jaw 20a at the lower corner of the rail base. In other words, the bend 21a is so positioned as to provide a substantial clearance 22a above the upper corner of the rail base flange, but there is no appreciable clearance beneath the lower corner of the rail base and the top surface of the jaw 20a, and the vertical faces 27-27 of the shoulders 25 of said Fig. 8 terminate at the plane of the top surface of the lower jaw 20a. However, in all other respects the construction of the rail anchor shown in Fig. 8 is the same as that illustrated in connection with Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive. Consequently the like parts of the two embodiments are identified herein by the same reference characters and the modified constructions of Fig. 8 are given the same reference characters plus an exponent a.

I claim:

In a one-piece rail anchor of the drive-on type including a main body having a substantially continuous horizontal under rail portion formed at one end with a hook of curvilinear form providing upper and lower jaws which are driven into expanded gripping engagement with a base flange at one side of the rail and which are maintained in their maximum expanded condition and formed at the other end with a locking shoulder for engaging the base flange at the other side of the rail, the anchor being made from a steel bar of T-shaped cross-section with the central web of the bar forming an external rigidifying rib extending continuously as a single are throughout the cross-section of the hook, whereby the bend of the hook within the planes of the sides of the rib functions to uniformly distribute, to the reinforcing rib throughout the bend of the hook, the flexing stresses imposed by the expansion of said hook into operative gripping engagement with the base flange of a rail, the combination including means for insuring correct application of the anchor to a rail, comprising, a flat striking face formed on the outer exposed edge of said rigidifying rib and extending substantially perpendicular to said main body for a distance at least equal to the width of the entrance opening of the hook, said striking face adapted to receive percussive force to drive the hook into expanded gripping engagement with the top and bottom surfaces of said first mentioned base flange, and a pair of outwardly pressed transversely aligned spaced apart overdrive preventing shoulders formed adjacent the lower outer edge portions of the curved inner face of the hook and positioned at either side of the rigidifying rib to engage the edge of the rail base embraced by the hook when the anchor is driven to final position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,559,589 Warr Nov. 3, 1925 1,691,019 Shepherd Nov. 6, 1928 1,782,170 Kennedy Nov. 18, 1930 2,161,484 Preston June 6, 1939 2,171,819 Warr Sept. 5, 1939 2,244,755 Warr June 10, 1941 2,530,021 McLaughlin Nov. 14, 1950 2,626,108 Spencer Jan. 20, 1953 

